Welcome to the Kehila Bendery webpage. I have compiled a comprehensive list of resources to aid you in exploring this town's Jewish history and perhaps to find out about relatives.Use this page as a discovery staging base, click on the buttons above and follow the trail, think also about visiting the Bessarabia, Romania and Ukraine SIGs.
Bendery (Tighina), is a city in modern Moldova, part of the historical area called Bessarabia, a region between Romania And Ukraine.

Introducing the wealth of information concerning the Bessarabian town of Bender, I like to make these general observations:
Jewish life is integrally intertwined with the local Rabbis, these important figures have tried to provide leadership and moral guidance, offering communal solutions and cohesion, my suggestion is to learn more about them if you want to understand a town's communal life. Click the 'Synagogue' link for more..
Consider that the first Hassidic court was established in Bendery by Aryeh-Leib Wertheim in 1819.
The physical terrain often dictates peoples occupation, Bessarabia and Bendery is famous for its grape-vines, a rich farming and grazing area but also an importand post of commerce as it is located at the mouths of the Danube, the greatest navigable river of eastern Europe, connecting commercial traffic between Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, Roumania, Hungary.
This strategic advantage has also led to numerous conflicts in bids to aquire the region, famously between Russia and Ottoman Turkey.